10 Most Common Reasons for Getting a Career Coach

Different people enlist the services of a careers coach for different reasons and at different points in their careers. Here are the most popular issues that career coaches help address. Also see our animated video quick tips on this too: 8 Reasons Why People Get a Career Coach

1. New Approach

Whatever your career goal is, you can get frustrated if you’ve been trying to achieve it for months and months without making any progress. A lot of people get a career coach because they want to try a new approach. They recognize that if they keep doing what they’ve always done, they’ll get what they’ve always gotten.

2. Job Search

People who’ve been applying for jobs for months and getting nowhere feel lost and want to break out of the loop. We often have a lack of appreciation for just how much the employment market has changed. Digital technology has made the recruitment process less courteous. It’s harder for people to thread their way in to the labour market. Working with a career coach can not only make the process easier and more fruitful but also less lonely and cold.

3. Need for Clarity

It’s important to step into the market only once you’re really clear on what you want to do. A lot of people want a career coach to help them get clear on what their options are, the criteria with which to narrow down those options and the ultimate goal that they choose to pursue.

4. Lack of Focus

Career coaches encourage you into realising the importance of focusing on one goal. Without a qualified career expert to guide us with their experience, wisdom and insight, it’s easy to fall into the trap of using the ‘scattergun’ approach – going for too many things at once in the mistaken belief that this will increase our chances of getting one of them.

5. Transition

Whether you’re transitioning from one employer to another, from one team to another, from one profession to another, from a career break back into work or vice versa, or from full-time work into retirement, it can be hard to go it alone. After all, you’re entering into something new so it’s difficult to know what you’re meant to be doing and how you’re meant to be handling things. Lots of people get career coaches to guide them through such transitions and career changes. The best career experts have often had a variety of real world work experiences themselves, giving them special insight into what it’s like to make a transition.

6. Getting an Edge

It’s a competitive employment market out there, with people trying to get an edge over their rival job candidates any which way they can. One of those ways is hiring a career expert to help them increase their performance or focus, even if it’s just by one percent. That one percent could make all the difference.

7. Sharpness

People who want pinpoint accuracy in targeting what they want and being clear about how to break through often hire career coaches to help them get that sharpness.

8. Market Knowledge

Knowing about various employment issues is crucial when you’re attempting a career transition. For example, if you’re finding a new job, you need to know what it is you have to do to get work. Understanding the market and the opportunities there are out there is important. Career coaches help you to understand these things by viewing the world of employment in a different way.

9. Selling Skills

Many of us are not keen on selling ourselves, even if a new job, a buy-in on a project or a promotion depends upon it. A career coach can show you what it is to project yourself onto the market in a way that makes you feel comfortable and confident.

10. Confidence

It’s not just in selling ourselves to others that we lack confidence. There are many areas and contexts in which we lack confidence as professionals. People who can recognise this lack of self-confidence in themselves often seek the help of career coaches to remedy this.

Get a copy of our Get a Coach to Get Ahead eBook to learn more about how to use a career coach smartly to achieve your career goals.